Under the Black Flag
by Shitz-Suji
Summary: AU. He is a denizen of the Pirate Republic. Bonded to his crew by gold and steel. But regardless of his notoriety, he was not without a heart and soul. Akashi/Fem!Kuroko
1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note: Shitz-Suji owns nothing from Kuroko no Basket. Only this fic's plot. Enjoy**

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Never before had the English Government encountered a pirate problem of such magnitude. The West Indies have been besieged by the arrival of a previously unheard of pirate crew from the the Orient. Five strong, they've pillaged, looted, and plundered all the way from Havana to Nassau, instilling whispers of awe and fear into the denizens of the Pirate Republic. Led by Captain Akashi Seijuro, these ruthless parasites will bleed the Empire dry if left on their own.

(Saint-Domingue, 1715)

The bitter taste of rum burned the back of Akashi's throat as he downed half a tankard. He was well aware of the stares he received from the other patrons of the pub. His bright crimson hair and pale skin was tell-tale evidence that he was obviously not from around the area, coupled with his mismatched eyes, he must have looked like the devil to these people.

The barmaid flinched as he slammed down his tankard, hesitating for a moment before she refilled his tankard with more rum. Akashi wrinkled his nose at the acrid stench of it, but drank the beverage anyways. What he wouldn't do for some good sake right now.

"Captain, repairs are complete. We're ready to hoist anchor," came a stoic voice from behind.

The chatter around Akashi dimmed down as his quartermaster, Midorima Shintaro, approached his table. If people thought Akashi looked intimidating, they would've surely trembled at the sight of Midorima. A scholarly looking man with emerald green hair and an impressive stature, the man towered respectfully behind Akashi as he finished the rest of his drink and left some coin at the table.

"What is that you're carrying today," the captain asked idly as they strolled back to port.

"A bull's horn," Midorima replied tartly. "The gypsies gave it to me with the warning that I should look out for strange demons."

"The gypsies will tell you anything for a bit of coin," Akashi scoffed. Nevertheless, he fingered the holster of the pistol strapped to his side when he noticed one man eyeing the glittering cutlass he had strapped to his waist.

He and his crew had been stranded in this city for weeks now, scurrying around town like rats to avoid the Spanish soldiers who patrol the harbor and defend it against pirates like them. Likewise, they weren't very bright as Akashi and his crew were able to get on land by bribing a nearby smuggler with English pounds.

Their brig, the Miracle, had been severely damaged by a hurricane (and cannonballs) a few weeks prior and was in desperate of repairs. So Akashi commissioned the help of a talented carpenter who owed him several favors to fix the ship. He just didn't like how it took so long.

But after a long walk and a small confrontation with a gang of bounty hunters, the two pirates found themselves standing in front of their ship, admiring the new sails and cannons that had been installed.

"Oii, you can admire the ship later. If you don't want to be captured and hanged, then hurry up and get us out of here," yelled a familiar voice. Jumping down from the bow of the ship was the crew's master gunner, a lad of 20 years with hair as golden as the sun.

"Then maybe you should shut your mouth, Kise, lest you announce to the guards that we're here," Midorima snapped.

"Maybe you both should shut your mouths." Akashi brushed past his quartermaster and made his way aboard his ship. "Aomine, is everything set?"

"Aye, she's ready to set sail, Captain," replied a blue haired man. "The winds are blowing swift today."

"And where is Murasakibara?"

"He's in the pantry putting away our food supplies. The lad nearly wet himself from all the things we got from trading in our loot."

Ignoring Aomine's increasingly strange style of speech, Akashi headed for the wheel, signaling him to hoist the anchor. After five weeks of being moored on land, he was ready to head back to the sea, where soon-to-be stolen treasures were waiting for him.

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**Shitz-Suji:** My best friend was obsessed with Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag and Kuroko no Basket at the same time, so I decided to write this for her (but that was a long time ago). I do want to continue this story though because I too am obsessed with the Pirate Age (RESEARCH~)


	2. Chapter 2

**Shitz-Suji:** Terribly sorry for not updating sooner, but I recently moved and it took a long time before I had access to internet again. Enjoy~

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(Caribbean Sea, 1715)

How does one determine the value of a treasure? In fact, how does one define treasure?

To the common Englishman, Frenchman, or Spaniard, treasures are jewels, mere baubles to be cut and set into a pretty necklace that would be clasped on a lady's neck. Or rings. Or shipments of fine liquors, aged well and properly. Or the silks, porcelain, and jade imported all the way from the cities of China. Or even slaves.

Yes, such items are considered treasures, but not of much value to Akashi. Why would he choose the necklace when he could have the lady herself? What use does a man have for rings, silks and fine pottery? Liquor was a whole other discussion though, and the enslavement of human beings was something Akashi and his crew frowned upon.

So it was to his great displeasure to see an English slave ship passing by. No doubt it was headed to Barbados to either deliver or pick up a new cargo, but Akashi would make sure it'd never make it to port. He signaled Aomine and Murasakibara to raise the flag and sails and watched as the other ship started to turn the other way.

"Take everything of value," the crimson haired Captain bellowed, "and burn that cursed ship plank by plank."

The Miracle was almost fifty meters away before Kise let loose the first cannon, which hit the other vessel in the hull. Successive hits damaged it to the point where most of the crew abandoned ship before Akashi could test out the reinforced bow Antonio had promised. What a shame.

Fire was spreading from the gaping hole in the other ship's hull, so there wasn't much time to be wasted. Akashi, along with Kise and Murasakibara boarded the vessel and proceeded to cut down the remainder of the crew that dared to put up a fight.

Blood ran down the silver of his cutlass as Akashi cut down the last man barring his entrance to the captain's cabin. After that, he broke down the door and rushed to grab as much as he could. He found a collection of maps, a new pair of leather boots, a lacquer box of jewelry, and two sacks of the Queen's gold.

Taking what he could carry back to the main deck, Akashi left it in the hands of Murasakibara before storming down the hatch to find Kise. Instead, he came across a cargo hold full of black slaves chained to wooden shelves. The unfortunate souls who didn't survive the journey across the seas laid rotting next to their very much alive, but barely conscious brethren.

And so, Akashi did what had to be done, liberating those who were strong enough to fight and mercifully killing those on the brink of death. The stench of death and human waste coupled with the unholy heat down below deck was stifling, and the fire was spreading throughout the boat, so he had to hurry.

"Captain, where are you," cried a familiar voice.

Down came Kise, his neck and arms dripping with gold necklaces and bangles. The master gunner found Akashi hacking at a pair of iron chains with his cutlass, noticing a pair of discarded pistols on the floor, and drew his own, throwing it towards his captain.

"You better hurry, Akaicchi. The boat's going to go under," he warned. With minor use of force, Kise motioned the group of liberated slaves and ushered them up to the deck, helping those along the way that couldn't walk or move as well.

Meanwhile, Akashi was finishing off the last of the chains in the upper shelves. As the surviving men and women climbed down with trembling limbs, they closed their eyes in remorse as they listened to the last groans of their dying brothers and sisters being put out by the red-headed captain.

As the last of the chains broke and the liberated stumbled towards the upper deck through the flames and smoke, a previously unseen figure latched onto Akashi's cutlass as he ran by. The mistake didn't not go unnoticed by him, but as he kept running, he heard a woman cry out to him.

"Please, don't leave me!"

He stopped, letting the words process through his brain as the woman tugged and pulled at her restraints. She was screaming at him in Japanese, pleading with him to free her. Momentary intrigue possessed him to draw his pistol and blow off the chains at her arms and legs. Within a few seconds, he had her slung across his shoulder and up the deck with the rest of the liberated.

Aomine and Murasakibara were assisting the men and women aboard the Miracle while Midorima was administering medical treatment on the new passengers that desperately needed it. Food and water was passed around while the slave ship across burned with a savage light. The European slavers in the water could only look up with ill-concealed hatred and resignation as the last of their merchandise made it across to the pirate vessel.

Akashi and his load swung across, landing on the wooden deck with a soft thump. He let Kise take the woman and resumed his place at the wheel. When the anchor was hoisted and the Miracle was set sail, weary cheers echoed on the open sea as the fire finally consumed the slave ship, sending its burning husk below the waters.

"We're headed westward! To Nassau," Akashi bellowed.

(Caribbean Sea, 1715)

Night came quickly and Akashi and his crew dined quietly amongst the freed men and women they had rescued earlier. A small meal of a biscuit and salted fish accompanied by a small cup of rum was served to everyone by Murasakibara, who lamented the disappearance of half his pantry.

After dinner, those without a bed were given two choices: sleep down in the cargo hold or out in the open on the main deck. Almost everyone picked the latter and they were given nothing more than torn pieces of an old sail to keep warm, but fresh air and a night sky lulled them to a peaceful sleep almost instantly.

Out the 500 slaves on board of that ship, only 112 people were on board the Miracle. Fifty-two suffered infections from their long imprisonment and were confined in the ship's lower deck while Midorima, the ship's medic, treated them. The trip to Nassau would take three days, but their food supplies would last if they rationed it.

After dinner, Akashi retired to his cabin to record the events of the day into his log before sleep took him, sparing no details. He wrote of the small fortune they took from the slavers, the barrel of gun powder and rifles stolen from the small cabinet in the gunner's cabin, and the set of maps he had yet to decipher, to the number of men and women who died in the stench of death and smoke.

There was still the woman though. Akashi described the state of which her found her in with vivid details. Her hair was tangles and crusted with questionable substances and the thin shift she wore completely concealed her malnourished frame. Bruises and small cuts marred her skin here and there, but there was no apparent signs of infection. There was still the problem of the deeps cuts sustained when the manacles on her wrists and ankles were removed, but Midorima was taking care of them.

_"A Japanese woman here, in Europe. Why did she leave the homeland,"_ he wrote. Akashi paused to think and eyed the items Murasakibara retrieved from her person when he cleaned her, a bamboo tile with a family crest engraved in it and two hairpins.

The crest implied that she was from a noble family, perhaps even a feudal lord's family. The hairpins, engraved with the same crest found on the tile, reinforced that theory. Beautifully crafted from gold and inlaid with small gems, the accessories could fetch a high price at any marketplace back home.

Without anything else to write about, Akashi closed his log and placed it back in the small chest where it belonged before snuffing out the candles.

(Caribbean Sea, 1715)

At the crack of dawn, Midorima was the first to wake. As Quartermaster of the Miracle, it was his duty to make sure everything was running smoothly before Akashi took over. And as the ship's only medic, it was his job to oversee the treatment of the freedmen on their ship.

Making his way down to the lower decks, the green-haired man sighed as he tied a piece of cloth to his face as to not catch any pathogens that contaminated the air around him. All was well, more or less, and the ones who needed a change of bandages were attended to with to. Everybody had made it through the night without much problem.

After disposing the dirty bandages, Midorima picked up some ginger, and a mortar and pestle from the kitchen, pausing to admire the sunrise before descending below deck again.

At Akashi's request, he was given an additional task to look after the girl whom Akashi had rescued yesterday. Under normal circumstances, Midorima wouldn't have even bothered attending to her since he knew she was in a critical state from the harsh treatment of the slavers, but Akashi insisted that he did.

Every cut on her body was sterilized with rum and wrapped in bandages. For the large gashes on her palms, he applied some plantain paste before wrapping them in bandages as well. Kise had donated one of his old nightshirts to her, which became her new shift.

"An act of kindness once in a while doesn't hurt, Midoricchi. 'Specially if it's for a pretty lass," he replied when Midorima asked why.

The girl was tucked away in a separate room below deck as far away as possible from the quarantined infected and wounded. She looked almost dead when Midorima entered the tiny chamber, but the tell-tale rise and fall of her chest told him she was still breathing. But it looked like her fever hadn't subsided yet.

Without disturbing her, he changed her bandages and prepared some ground ginger for her to repair any respiratory damage she might have sustained from her imprisonment.

"You left out your bull's horn last night, Shintaro," a voice said from behind. "Take care of it, lest you want Daiki to throw it into the waves."

Midorima only gave a nod of acknowledgment as his captain handed him back his 'lucky charm' and examined the girl quietly. "What are you going to do with her," he asked a while after.

There was only two options to deal with a captured woman on sea: sell her to the highest bidder or take her. Midorimia reasoned that the first option was out of the question and the second option was most likely the same as the first.

"I wish I have an answer for you, but I don't, Shintaro." A coy smirk pulled at Akashi's lips as he gathered himself to take leave. "When you're done here, make sure to tell Daiki to scrub the deck. It's quite filthy."

. . . So Aomine really did try to throw his bull's horn into the sea. Scrubbing the deck was a fitting punishment for such an offense.

Pushing that towards the back of his mind, Midorima applied the ginger around her nose and ignored the slight pang of pity he felt for her. If she didn't die overnight, then she was most likely to end up in the arms of a scalawag or in a whorehouse.

(Caribbean Sea, 1715)

The eastern winds were blowing hard today and Akashi feared that they might be caught in another storm before they could reach Nassau. Kise's reassurances otherwise did little to help as the storms usually struck a random intervals, usually with a bright sky and humid conditions.

On the other hand, it could be nothing but just paranoia. If he started thinking that hurricanes lurked around every corner, they'd never make it to Nassau.

Meanwhile, it seemed that Midorima had passed on his orders to Aomine. The disgusting layer of soot, ash, and piss had to be cleansed as soon as possible to maintain the integrity of the Miracle.

"I want cleaned so that you can eat off each plank, Aomine. You best get started." A brush and a bucket was water was tossed in front of the boatswain, who looked ready to murder someone.

"What the hell?! Why do I have to scrub the plank? For fuck's sake, get one of those sla-men to do it," Aomine said hotly.

"Captain's order. The earlier you finish, the earlier you can eat." And with that, Midorima had gotten his revenge. Akashi could almost see the spiteful grin etched on the green-haired man's face as he left the main deck.

(Caribbean Seas, 1715)

Three days of sailing and they were almost finally at the Pirate Republic of Nassau, a former English settlement turned pirate haven by Benjamin Hornigold and Thomas Chieftain.

Before the crew could enjoy some leisure time at the various taverns and brothels that dotted the settlement, there was still the matter of the 112 freedmen on the Miracle. Some were well enough to walk and work, while others were still slowly recovering from their ordeal.

Arriving at port, Akashi had Murasakibara drop anchor and Kise lead the men to shore. Sails were lowered and tied down while anything of value was put away in case some wandering buccaneer thought he could make it aboard the ship. Aomine was forced to stay aboard to keep watch because of his repeated offence of trying to discard Midorima's bull's horn again.

That idiot's temper was going to be the death of him.

"Look's like we've got some company up ahead, sir. What should we do," Kise asked, grinning.

"Well, well, well, the Chain Breaker's back again! And with 'nother army of slaves t'is time," a man slurred, laughing. "I thought you was hanged by the Spanish back in Havana!"

He was obviously drunk, but very much composed enough to butt heads with Akashi. The man was Jack Rackham, more commonly known as Calico Jack, a renowned pirate Quartermaster under Captain Charles Vane.

"Eh, let's get you boys something to wet your whistle. C'mon lads."

Jack tossed away his bottle and motioned for the group to follow him, latching onto Akashi for support. The two men had a complicated relationship since the time they met, beginning with Rackham's attempt to report them to the English Royal Navy to Akashi's infamous bar tumble that left Rackham bedridden with leeches for a week.

Akashi's moniker, "Chain Breaker", was supposed to be a derogatory title created by Rackham to mock the sympathy he and his crew held for slaves. But instead, it made the crimson-haired captain that much more reputable in Nassau.

When they stopped at the tavern, Akashi shrugged Rackham off and made his way inside with his crew, ignoring the clamoring of surprised patrons and whores. Taking a hefty sack of coins, Akashi dropped on the counter and demanded that the barkeep feed and clothe the men and women outside.

"Any man attempting to sell them into slavery again will be dealt with me and my crew personally," he added as a warning.

"Aye, sir." The withered barkeep snatched the sack and scurried to the back to deliver on his end of the bargain, and soon the dingy tavern was filled with the smell of food.

"A piss-poor time to return to this sorry hell, don't you think," Another one of Akashi's acquaintances, Benjamin Hornigold, . He grabbed a tankard of brandy from a passing barmaid and turned to Murasakibara, grinning. The two shared the same fondness for sweets even though Hornigold was limited to the sugared scones made by his cook.

Dismissing his crew, Akashi took a flag of rum offered by Hornigold and sipped quietly as they shared news and information.

"The Spanish Armada and English Navy are at it again near Antigua. Any moron would know better than to cross the Royal Navy, but 'em Spaniards," he tutted lightly. "I heard from Vane and Rackham that you and your crew was sent to the gallows, what happened?"

"A slight storm caught us by surprise and we were forced to drop anchor in Havana. Took almost two months before we could leave."

There was a pause before Hornigold gave a long whistle, splashing his drink everywhere when he raised his tankard. "To the return of the Red Devil! May the seas bless 'im with her bounty and such!"

"AYE," came the resounding cheers.

"Last thing, mate," Hornigold grabbed Akashi's collar and leaned in close. "The French put up a blockade at Martinique. If ya' sane enough, steer clear of 'em French bastards."

"Why?"

"They be crackin' down on any ship that sails a black flag. Harwood's already gotten himself and 'is crew killed on a raid in Saint Lucia."

"May he rest in peace." Akashi slipped Hornigold a gold coin before the man left to find a barmaid to refill his cup. At the corner of his eye, he spotted Kise enjoying himself with a woman while Midorima was drinking by himself.

Murasakibara was nowhere to be seen and Akashi remembered that there were still more men on his ship, albeit injured and ill. If time permitted, he'd recruit some men to help carry them to the medic, otherwise Midorima would continue to treat them until another suitable arrangement could be made.

All that was left to do was to help the group outside find shelter and purchase a new pistol to replace the one he lost on the slave ship.

As Akashi was musing to himself, he caught the eye of a barmaid leering at him and motioned for her to come over. A few more tankards of liquor and it didn't take long before she was in his bed.

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**Shitz-Suji: **Tis a terrible chapter. I will rewrite as soon as I can get everything else sorted out. Review~


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